1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a glove with wrist straps anatomically contoured to conform and provide stress relief to the wrist. More particularly, the present invention relates to a glove particularly useful in automobile racing that includes wrist protective padding with relief zones at designated areas of the wrist.
2. Description of Related Art
Glove construction for protection of the human hand is well known. In addition, there are a number of patents which teach gloves claimed to be particularly useful when playing baseball, softball, hockey and the like as well as those worn by motorcycle and bicycle enthusiasts. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,345,609 teaches a protective glove which includes shock-absorbing cells disposed at selected portions along the top of the glove. U.S. Pat. No. 5,790,980 teaches a hand glove with a polyurethane foam pad in the palm portion of the glove. Other references teach sport gloves for supporting and stabilizing the wrist and hand. Even, other references teach gloves to protect the bony prominence areas of the hand. One of these is U.S. Pat. No. 6,253,382 which teaches shock-absorbing pads positioned for location above and below the center axis of rotation of the metacarpalphangeal joints of the fingers while the metacarpalphangeal joint of the finger are absent of the shock-absorbing pads.
Moreover, there are a number of gloves which have been suggested for use in bicycle and/or motorcycle racing which include protective pads to reduce scrapes and abrasions when the rider falls from the motorcycle or bicycle. However, in many of these gloves, the pads can make it difficult to flex the glove thereby contributing to discomfort for the wearer as well as interfere with the ability to grasp the handle bars of the motorcycle or bicycle.
Even further, in the sport of automobile racing it is common for the racer to endure wrist fatigue and the like during prolong holding and gripping of the steering wheel. And, there have been gloves proposed for use by race car drivers which are to assist in wrist fatigue. However, in many cases when pads are included in the glove the pads interfere with the flexibility of the glove and thereby increase the discomfort to the wearer as well as interfere with the ability of the wearer to grasp the steering wheel for prolonged periods of time with a grip which is necessary for endurance racing.